Tag: Eddie

When was the last time you heard that name? Eddie or Edward Furlong? You might remember him as the Terminator Boy who played John Connor in the 1991 blockbuster by James Cameron. Ring a bell? I know it’s hard to bring back a lost decade. Here a picture of him might help:

I was only three years old when Terminator 2: Judgment Day had rolled out. But it wasn’t until 8 years later that I saw the movie for the first time. I know that was some gap. But if you had been in my country and time where Hollywood was frowned upon by parents, I might as well gain some sympathy votes and stand for election.

So there I was watching T2 on Star Movies, alongside my Dad for the first time, who by the way was already mesmerized by the concept of having a robot around for bodyguard, and I realized that the Terminator Boy was really good. Hell! I wanted to be like him. I loved how he looked, and that attitude he wore, I found it to be sheer badass! Soon enough I started copying him, his hairstyle in particular, but for a kid with frizzy hair and a Dad who never allowed me to grow hair long enough to even cover my eyes, I came nowhere near. I had somehow convinced myself that I looked like him when I combed in a certain way. Then I would flick my head as if I pushing all those locks behind.

Post an Early Fame

It was about the same time I came across the movie Before and After. I was jumping on my chair when I found that it was Eddie in there. I watched the movie with utmost attention appreciating every bit of him, and the movie in whole. Didn’t even know that the real actors in the movie were none other than Meryl Streep and Liam Neeson. It had a beautiful theme where a child accidentally kills his girlfriend in a petty scuffle. Being a child, and no girlfriend, I had related to him the most. You see empathy has been my superpower ever since I was a kid.

Somewhere along the way, I came across Pet Sematary 2 too. They used to show dud movies on HBO, yes.

I must implore you to reserve your judgment. I was a kid back then, and I loved even pathetic movies, even those that had pointless themes. Of course, things are different today. But back then I used to be super psyched for everything that TV showed.

I later came across the first part, and then realized why the second one was plain stupid. But I liked Eddie nevertheless. I secretly wished to be Drew Gilbert his friend played by Jason McGuire from the movie. I was fat then, yeah!

Big Projects

It was not until I saw him in American History X that I realized there was a whole lot of potential in the kid, and that he was definitely headed somewhere. It was an arresting plot introducing Furlong to a strange world of possibilities. His colossal chance of making it big in Hollywood gawked at him not to forget the success of Terminator 2 that had already shot him in the air.

By that time, our Terminator Boy had already visited T2 in 3D and was looking solid in those acting shoes. I came across Detroit Rock City on HBO and loved it instantly. That rebellious attitude was singing songs in my head too.

He was a Hollywood heartthrob alright, and he looked so cool that I just wanted to be like him. He smoked and everything which isn’t a good thing to copy but I kind of liked that reckless demeanor I guess. All those photos with his love interest Liz Levy used to come so rad that I copied his style, that messy hair that carefree attitude, everything secretly hoping Liz to show up sometime.

The Lost Terminator boy

Then I lost track of him. Some serious life stifled me up good and I guess I forgot everything about Eddie Furlong and my obsession to watch his films and be like him. I used to find his photos every now and then. I heard he was doing The Crow: Wicked Prayer and he looked a complete badass in that crow avatar. But I never got a chance to watch that movie, only to realize later that it fell face forward as a mighty flop.

People have a hard time keeping it together. That’s when the drug and substance abuse happened to him. I didn’t even know it had swallowed the Terminator Boy so much that it started affecting his life. It started skewing his looks. He went into rehab in 2000, and the return wasn’t that great.

Then I saw him in Jimmy and Judy which I found to be ‘Okay’ compared to the movies he had been doing during that time. The movie was entirely shot on a handheld video camera which felt unique to me at that time. Later he went on to marry his co-star Judy played by Rachael Bella after having a serious relationship with her.

The Real Life Makeover

All of a sudden I came across The Green Hornet one day, and I almost missed him because he was unrecognizable. There was this cameo where he showed up and I felt so sorry for him watching him struggle to bag a role in a movie. From riches to rags, that’s all I could think about.

I googled him and found him looking utterly disgusting. His teeth were all yellow, he had an obvious podge that disfigured him so much that it was hard to fathom how a man could throw his life away like that.

Rachael Bella had divorced him in 2011 on grounds of irreconcilable differences. He was still a cocaine and heroin addict, doing movies that would always somehow go straight to DVDs.

He was put on 3 years probation when he tried to contact Rachael. Then he was put in jail for violation of probation against his ex-girlfriend Monica Keena. Put away for domestic violence a couple of times, and then arrested again in 2013. So far he has served 61 days in prison!

Wishing Eddie a Revival

Now that I think of it I feel utterly bad for him. Even though I haven’t lived in his shoes, or tasted his life. Somehow deep down I feel I have known him all my life. A life parallel to mine that I tried to imitate at one point. All that coolness however vanished with time, role models changed, fandom moved from one actor to another.

But I would always come back to find him, just to see how he is faring in life. I would often check on him if his movies are doing okay or if he ever made out from that chasm of hell he had inadvertently ended up in.

He had found some ground in Aftermath but then again was quick enough to lose it. I see IMDB flaring up his next projects as The Reunion and Karma. It feels pretty weird when you see him constantly struggle to make a living like that eating whatever comes his way.

Personally, I wish the Terminator Boy all the best. Things could begin to look up for him if he regains his posture, and becomes once again the lad who had it all, and who was loved by all. Our very own child with dreams in his eyes – The Terminator Boy Eddie Furlong!

Sing along your favorite songs with the most adorable bunch of animals! Sing movie is an anthropomorphic take of Christophe Lourdelet and Garth Jennings, a brilliantly scripted venture that tries to edify the lives of animals. It does so effortlessly by resonating us with them in the right proportion. They let humanity seep under the skin of animals to epitomize important life lessons, and the problems every fellow dreamer has to deal on an every day basis.

Plot of the Sing Movie

Although the movie packs in a plethora of cute animals to look forward to, the best and the most prominent one however stays the leader. A Koala bear named Buster Moon, voiced beautifully by Matthew McConaughey, is the guy with the cardinal vision of seeing success dribble in through his theater gates via show business.

He is an optimist who has never learnt to give up. Buster retains hopeful eyes, the ones that are always excited to see new things sieve in. The gleam in them tells you that he is eager to shape dreams into reality, and always ready to deliver.

With his job to hunt down only the best, he possesses the natural flair to always dispense the right judgment. Things that he does are strong enough to often leave you brooding with a poignant sense of regard at your scattered dreams. It contrasts how we tend to give up our dreams with the slightest sign of trouble. With Buster Moon’s efforts to work around things to get things running either by hook or crook, you can feel in your bones the warmth of a never give up attitude that is so crucial to get by.

You know what’s great about hitting rock bottom. There is only one way left to go, and that’s up.

Other Fellow Dreamers (Spoilers Ahead)

Buster Moon’s big aspirations are inspiring. But it is owing to his clumsy accidents along with Miss Crawly, (surprisingly voiced by Garth Jennings himself) that sets the Sing movie on wheels. Paths get paved for aspiring singers when promotional fliers of $100,000 for a singing competition accidentally overrun the whole town. Though it was intended originally to show a mere $1000 and came up straight from Buster Moon, the huge success of it made him play along.

Talented singers from eclectic background show up. Oh! Watch out for their auditions, by the way. They are outright hilarious! When you watch them all auditioning for the competition, their species and their ungainly acts make things even funnier. It would be hard not to crack up.

Aslo, a bunch of girly Japanese dolls (Pandas probably) keep showing up every now and then to perform, assuming they have been selected. Watch out for them as well! So funny!

Among other crucial animals are Ash, Eddie, Johnny, Rosita, Gunter, Mike, and the exceptionally talented elephant introvert Meena. The latter’s voice has been given by none other than Tori Kelly. Her voice is so beautiful that it would bring tears to your eyes. Also, her side-plot is one of the best the movie has.

So the movie is basically more of a competition where animals from different backgrounds come in the front-line to test their luck. Their lives are intertwined with their domestic issues and concerns that stop them from, in one way or the other, from following their dreams. But it is about beating all odds to come out with flying colors.

Songs in Sing Movie

Taking the movie moniker into account, the primal theme was basically supposed to be songs. So it doesn’t fail in that direction at all. There are around 60 songs shoehorned in the flick that play at various junctures setting you in the right vibes.

You can order Sing movie from here:

Minor Downsides

When you look at the downsides of Sing movie, you could hear some bells knell in its comedy department. It is definitely not that funny, but there are ample jests to keep that flow going. Also, the movie doesn’t have anything huge coiled up waiting at the climactic end. It’s there where you feel all that amped up energy slowly wane. The subplots feel deliberately created to show feigned approvals, and they become really drab at one point.

Also, if you really look at the movie it appears to be more of a cliched tale confined to pursuing something, falling and then rising up again. That is all. So, there is nothing extraordinary apart from that for us to feast upon.

The Final Verdict

Even though the Sing movie’s theme is a tad predictable, it manages to hold up really well. Almost giving you an impression as if you are watching a good reality show. You begin to feel for the characters, sympathize and empathize with them as you might have done for characters in the real world. It makes you appreciate Garth Jennings even more, who also happened to have written the story of Sing.

This latest by Illumination Entertainment is way better than all of its past works so far. It cuts short the snappy humour that it was known for, but still manages to come up with a beautifully crafted animated flick. It has family entertainment written all over it.

Hilarious! Okay, so I will be honest. Ice Age Collision Course wasn’t really needed, and we could have lived without it, unless we were driving on a stupendous plane that would have thrilled us beyond limit like Pixar movies generally do. Despite the apparent, Ice Age: Collision Course still manages to pull it off, owing to their awesome sense of snappy humour and their fascinating CGI that makes everything appear stunning.

PLOT OF ICE AGE COLLISION COURSE

Ice Age Collision Course comes with a very banal plot. The implausibility of Ice Age keeps on degrading as we caper towards exploring new parts of the franchise. Maybe Blue Sky Studios have been milking its installments too much, so much that they are actually running out of material. No doubt there is always humour galore in their work, but at one point it becomes kind of pointless when there is nothing in their baggage and they still try to squeeze every bit to make jokes out of thin air.

The plot of Ice Age Collision Course is something as dumb as Scrat messing around with the universe. That’s what he does. He keeps showing up throughout the movie to accidentally mess with the fate of the planet. Things that avalanche therefrom aren’t exactly what we were expecting. It toys with everything – the story-line, the credibility, jokes, everything!

BEST BITS TO REMEMBER

Remember Buck? Well, the awesome weasel is here as well, and he is probably one of the best things about the movie. Simon Pegg returns to voice the one-eyed chap who will take you on a joyride to saving the planet. He is just the way we left him in the prequels. Totally loco!

A side plot of Julian–Peaches story was an impending steer, which was quite thoughtful. It tried to give the story a perspective and a good direction. Granny returns once again with her incessant nagging which never bores you. Oh and we should never forget the true antihero of Ice Age franchise, Scrat who always brings hilarity to no matter what he does.

THE FINAL VERDICT

I say the humour is way better than what the Angry Birds movie came up with. If you liked that you are definitely going to love this. If you didn’t, well, you are still going to like Ice Age Collision Course for its magnificent animation and rib-tickling humour.